Drea

Dancer and pop music songstress Drea meets us at TEAPOP in North Hollywood, CA to discuss her latest single “Hometown,” the creation of the For Her Concert Series, and turning a dark experience into a positive and empowering movement of reclamation.

So since we’re currently at the venue that you had recently hosted your For Her Concert Series, how the experience was with running and preparing for the event since it was the first one?

Drea: It was so incredible! I’m so happy with the results and how everything turned out, but it was definitely a lot of work. You start with finding the venue, then you move on to finding the crew members, and then the singer-songwriters, and then you start doing all the social media and the event pages. It’s just kind of a process that you have to take step-by-step. But I’m really proud of what we accomplished. We were able to raise about $200 for The Ladybugs Movement and six large bags of donations. So that was all really cool!

Yay! I was taking a look at the event photos on the page itself and it looked like it was very successful! And you had a great group of singer-songwriters too!

Drea: Yes! They’re all incredible ladies!

How did you choose the women that were going to be a part of the lineup? And apart from The Ladybugs Movement, which other non-profit organizations did you contact to be a part of the event, or would you like to work with for future events?

Drea: So as far as choosing my singer-songwriters, I did want to pick musicians who would be able to do a limited set up. That was a big thing, especially because I know that this area sometimes has noise complaints so I wanted to be respectful of the neighborhood that was hosting. I also picked people who would be somewhat in that same vein in terms of sound. I go to a lot of shows, and I’ve been friends and associates with a lot of these singer-songwriters, so it was kind of easy for me to reach out to them. And every single one of them was so eager to be a part of the process so that was really exciting. Katie Ferrara is someone that I picked because I think she’s phenomenal and very unique. She’s a street performer and a busker, which is such a cool thing and I just knew she was going to put on a great show. I saw Beck Pete at The Fox and Hounds on their Songwriter Sunday stage, and she just blew me away with her emotions, so I knew I wanted her to be a part of the show as well. And then Luci to me is just that quintessential girl group that would be a perfect closing act for the theme of ‘women supporting women’ that the concert series is all about. In terms of the non-profits, The Ladybugs Movement is a movement that I’m actually on the Board of Directors for. That was kind of a shoo-in for me to use them as a platform and as the guinea pig for this first concert series. But when I look into the future, I do want to reach out to other non-profits as well. What’s important for me is to be able to try and keep it as a free concert series, so that it can lessen the complications and also to offer it to the public. Anyone that might be walking by could see it, stop in, and hopefully donate to the cause or causes being showcased. The donations are something that is encouraged, but not necessary in order to see the show. With that being said, it’s important for me to have non-profits in mind that do obviously support women, but that also need product donations. That way people can just go through things at their house and you still have that free element to the show. So those are all things I’m really looking into as I’m checking out other organizations to partner with. A Window Between Worlds is an amazing art-based organization that’s out on the Westside who works to use art to help women who are survivors of domestic violence and abuse, so that could be a group that I would want to partner with in the future. A Million Drops is a group that I am also partnered with, and they work with homeless youth in Hollywood. While they do have a male and female population that they serve, the non-profit itself is run by a woman, so that’s something that I would consider supporting in the future for the concert series. The Alexandria House is a domestic violence shelter, so that might be one to reach out to as well. I’m kind of getting my roster together to figure out where those places would be that are female-run non-profits that also support women in need, but that also need product donations so I can keep the series free.

Yeah definitely. I mean, there are so many organizations out there that a lot of people don’t even know of. It’s really awesome when small businesses and smaller events partner with local non-profit groups. Now the For Her concert series was branched from your Reclaim Movement dance classes. And I understand that Reclaim was inspired by some personal experiences, but would you care to share a little bit about how you came to create Reclaim?

Drea: Yes, absolutely. I founded the Reclaim Movement because I am a survivor of sexual assault. For me, being able to use movement and music in my healing process was really important. I actually have a friend that runs a similar movement out of Australia, and she came to L.A. once or twice to hold similar classes. While they were really helpful, they weren’t consistent enough for me and my healing. There just weren’t any classes available that were women only, less competitive, and that would be safe for me as someone that’s trying to reclaim my body and my sexuality. All those kinds of things are very specific requirements for someone looking for a class like that. I founded Reclaim after I left my full time job in December 2017, because it was a great opportunity for me to take that time to bring this passion to life. Although I feel like I’m in a place where I may not have all of the answers sometimes, I do have the resources and I have the skill in order to pull together a class that can be safe for women, just like I needed when I was going through something like that.

That’s absolutely amazing, and I’m sure the women that find you appreciate it. As Reclaim grows, what other aspects would you like to include?

Drea: Right now I am getting my self defense instructor training, so once I have that certification I would love to have self defense classes for women as part of the Reclaim Movement. Private lessons is something that I’m looking into starting as well. So kind of growing it in that sense, and being able to continue on in the future.

It sounds like it’s going really well so far with taking the chance to leaving your job. It’s all worked out!

Drea: Yes! Absolutely!

Kind of going back to what you had mentioned about of the competition aspect of dance. Because we’re living in L.A., do you feel like women that attend your classes kind of still have that competition aspect? Or do you feel like this is something similar to your experience where they just need that outlet to reclaim themselves?

Drea: The great thing about my class is it is an open level class, so we have a wide variety of people who take the class, but the majority of them are not “dancers.” There are some professional dancers that have taken my class, but there are also people who have never taken a dance class before. I’m very intentional about setting up the framework of the class to be non-competitive and not focusing on perfecting the moves. I film the tutorials and everything on my own time outside of the class to remove that pressure, but I’m always going to be at the front of the class so they have someone to watch. It’s not about developing your dance skill as much as it is finding your groove and understanding your body, and to use that time as an intentional moment for you to heal in whatever way you have to heal. We also don’t go around like, “Hi, my name is Drea, and I’m a survivor–” We don’t do that. It’s not AA, it’s not my business unless you make it my business, and I’m certainly not trained at the moment to be able to assist in that way either. But we do set it up so that it is a community and not a competition.

A lot of people do say that art is a therapy. It’s like a healing factor where people turn to music or dance or film to get themselves out of their heads.

Drea: I think that’s totally true and I know that it was for me. When I started this, I figured that there would be women who fall into one of two camps: either they love to dance but they don’t feel like they can go to a class comfortably, or they are survivors of some sort of trauma like I was. I have been trained in dance for over 20 years, but there are beginner classes here that I can’t even hang in and there’s something a little bit wrong about that. Obviously the studios out here do an amazing job at what they do, but because this is the commercial hub of dance it’s hard to find beginner classes for people who wanna learn that aren’t just dance fitness classes, which is a very different thing on its own. But yeah. We’re very intentional about the music that we play as well, because like you said, music is also very healing. We play only empowering music by female artists, which means that we won’t play music that is focused on men or trashing other women and that is not too explicit.

It’s so inspiring that you’ve started this outlet for many other women to call a ‘safe place.’ Especially in Los Angeles. And kind of going into the music aspect, you had recently released a single called “Hometown.”

Drea: Yes!

What inspired its lyrics and instrumental elements?

Drea: Yes! So “Hometown” I released back in February now, and it was my first single that I released since my debut EP No Vacancy came out in 2016. It was honestly a freestyle. When I was recording No Vacancy with my producer Raz Klinghoffer, I met with my current producer Kayja because I just needed a creative break. You know? I needed to get away from the dance pop that I was doing, and just do something totally different. So he had a track for me, and I literally just sang over and over and over and over, and then the chorus and everything all came out from that. Now fast forward about a year later, and I was dropped by my management about a week before my debut music video came out. I could have just curled up in a ball and quit, but I was like “Nope!” So I called Kayja and I was like, “We’re gonna make “Hometown” a single! I need to meet with you! We’re gonna pull it together, let’s go!” So I met with him, pieced together all of those different freestyle tracks, pulled a verse and a chorus out of it, changed some of the writing, and then we re-recorded it and finally released it, like, another half year later. So that was a lot of fun for sure. As far as the instrumentation, with all of the songs that I’m doing with Kayja right now, we’re very intentional about continuing to have live instrumentation. He’s great at the electronic side of things, but I also wanted to be sure to showcase live piano and guitar and things like that, to kind of stay true to the musical element bit. One of the important things to remember about music in terms of a song, in my opinion, is if you can strip it down or it’s acoustic and it’s still a good song, then you did well. A lot of things can kind of get lost in the electronics portion of it, but if you can strip it down to just the instruments and the voice, how is it?

Would you say that that’s kind of an issue in the pop industry right now? Like when you have a great song, but then you hear it acoustic, like you said, and it’s just not as great as you imagined it was going to be?

Drea: I think it all kind of depends, you know? I think sometimes cover artists can kind of help to reveal the different elements that make a song great. Sometimes you hear a song on the radio and you’re like “Oh God, this is so annoying! I hear this all the time!” But then you hear the cover version, and you’re like “Oh man! This is really cool acoustic!” So I think it can kind of go both ways. I’m not here to bash anything that’s going on in pop music or anything, but I will say that there’s a lot of music that is starting to leave out the live instrumentation, which I think is a shame, and a lot of things do kind of sound the same. I think among the public we’re all looking for a little bit more of a vibey kind of playlist. We’re a playlist generation where you don’t really wanna sit and listen to an individual song. You wanna lay back, smoke some weed, and just vibe out. That’s why a lot of artists are catering to that, but then, it’s hard to distinguish artists from each other sometimes, at least for me.

Definitely. Sometime’s it’s just easier like if you’re throwing a party or taking a long drive where you can’t keep going back and forth to different songs. Now kind of going back to your recorded work. Was there anything that was different in particular between the songwriting and recording process between “Hometown” and No Vacancy? Since you mentioned that “Hometown” was kind of a freestyle-style song?

Drea: Yeah totally! So the biggest difference was just time. Raz and I completed the EP probably in a few months. It was a lot of writing, a lot of recording, all just really quickly getting it done and doing what we had to do. That was a great experience for me, because it pushed me as a songwriter to really try and pull out some good stuff quickly without having to have a life event as a catalyst. With “Hometown” and with the new music that will be coming out later on this year or early next year, I’m definitely being more honest. I’m not focused as much on being a pop artist, and with “Hometown” being a freestyle, it means that it was basically as honest as it can get. I actually didn’t mess around with it too much, so it was literally how I was feeling. I will say too, that the timing can make a huge difference. One of my songs coming out called “La Paz,” which means ‘peace’ in Spanish, and we literally did like eight vocal sessions because I wasn’t satisfied with it. I’m more about taking the time to make sure everything is right without putting pressure on myself. I don’t have a manager or a producer or anyone telling me when things need to get done, I’m in charge of all of it, and that means that I can really be as creative and intentional as I want to be.

Do you feel that modern music right now kind of has that high pressure aspect where artists feel like they need to put out an album every year? Like maybe each album kind of isn’t as sparkling as the one before it?

Drea: I do think that there are unique pressures, especially for artists under major labels. When you have to put forth album after album after album, it doesn’t really give a lot of time for your sound to change. Now it’s not to say that those albums aren’t going to continue to be great, but I sometimes think just taking the time, maybe even doing a tour or two, will be able to develop you as a person. I think focusing on the art itself is something that’s often overlooked. Sure, you can put out music and do this and that and the next thing, that’s obviously important, but you also have to develop as a person or else you’re not gonna have anything new to say. I mean, again, I’m not really in a place to criticize the general public of pop music or anything, but I will say that there are some albums that have come out that I kind of feel like I don’t really need to buy, just because I have the old one and the sounds are really similar. But there are always still some hits on there, so I can’t be too mad. *laughs*

Photo Courtesy of Drea Music Facebook

Of course. And speaking in terms of the music industry, do you feel that women need to portray themselves in a certain way in order to be successful?

Drea: That’s such a loaded question. First of all, I think that on a surface level perspective, it’s obviously important to know who you are, and know what your brand is, and have a personality. Right? So that does kind of mean having a type, like typecasting yourself in a sense, and then staying true to it. Not that artists can’t develop, but once you kind of have a brand, it’s important, at least to me as a fan of other musicians, that you stick to it because this is what I’ve kind of come to depend on from you. So when you see artists switch every year, like, their name, their hair color, this and that, you can’t help but say “Do you not know yourself?” So once you have a brand, stick to it if it vibes with you. In terms of having to portray yourself as a woman, I will say that especially in pop music, you have to be sexy. And like either you have to be sexy, or you have to be phenomenal, like, Adele voice with Adele lyrics, you just have to be…

Adele? *both laugh*

Drea: Yes! You have to be Adele! *laughs* You look at the great pop artists right now, and even the women who are mothers in their 40s, while they all look amazing, they’re all dancing around in leotards on stage! That’s pop music. Pop music is sex, and that is kind of what we have considered empowering to women, and I’m not sure that that’s actually true. I think we’re kind of living under a little bit of a facade, like, if we make ourselves sexually available and attractive, then we are empowered. But at the end of the day, you’re still catering to men when you do that. And I say this as someone that likes to be sexy. It’s a complicated time for women, for female artists, right now in the industry for sure.

And there’s always such a different definition of ‘sexy’ as well. Do you think that right now with the music industry and the public starting to be more empowering of women, that they’re more open minded to the success of a woman in the music industry?

Drea: I think there’s a difference between the public being open minded and the industry being open minded. I think the public is definitely game to celebrate women and empower women right now. But one of the best kept secrets is that the music industry is still so male driven and, honestly, very misogynist. I’ve certainly experienced that just from working in studios, working with producers, having to deal with certain managers and photographers sitting at front desks, interning at some of these places, and even just being an artist in the industry. Just because we have Beyoncé doesn’t mean that this is now a feminist industry. It is not a feminist industry at all. I actually think there’s still a huge number discrepancy between the women in power in the music industry and the men in power in the music industry, just from looking at who’s doing what. In my opinion, just because you have a woman who’s managing the studio, if a man owns the studio, he overrides her. So it doesn’t really matter sometimes at the end of the day. How many female producers do you have the opportunity to work with that’s up to snuff of what a male producer could be? Female engineers? Where are the female photographers, you know? These are all complicated questions. You can find those people, but they are much more few and far between than the male colleagues, and sometimes the male colleagues actually are more qualified because they’ve had more opportunities, you know? It’s not about talent or capability, but who is getting the assistant-ship from the internship? Who’s even being hired as runners at these studios? The women aren’t. The women are being hired as front desk girls because they’re pretty, and then even though we’re managing the runners, the runners get promoted. There’s nowhere for us to go. I don’t even remember what the question was, but that’s my spiel on that! *laughs* But yeah, I think that there is definitely a long ways to go. And you can look at the #MeToo Movement and Time’s Up, where now the film industry has many more opportunities for women to stand up for themselves. You have people like Reese Witherspoon who run their own production companies and can star in their own TV shows and movies and demand high salaries because they’re running the company. It’s not the same thing in music. Even the Beyoncé-s are still managed by men. In record labels, they have presidents that are men. They’re working with the producers and the writers that are all men. At the end of the day they are still catering to men. And there are some amazing men out there that I’ve worked with: my current producer, Kayja. My former producer, Raz, who actually saw me as a person with a talent as opposed to “Oh, maybe I can get some on the side.” I can’t tell you how many projects I’ve had to just dump because they wanted something like that.

That’s such a crappy thing. You’re trying to pursue your passion, and someone’s getting in the way of it.

Drea: Mm-hmm. Unfortunately sometimes it’s about sex in a very self-indulgent industry. But at the same time, it’s about power as well. I think that that’s a whole other ladder that women are gonna have to climb, and I’m not sure that we’ll be able to do it. What I will say is that it’s imperative that the men in the industry get on board with us. Because if we don’t have people on the inside that are standing up for us and telling their colleagues “You need to stop soliciting the artists for casual sex. You can’t do that, this is your artist! Don’t make her get on her knees for you. She’s a talented individual. What are you doing?” If we don’t have those men to stand up to those violating women who are chasing their dreams and are willing to do just about anything for it, we will continue to fail and to be outnumbered. I could rant on that all day though! *laughs*

No worries! I think women will absolutely be able to push through eventually. Trying is better than doing nothing. So if a young girl came up to you saying that she wants to grow up to be a pop star, what kind of advice would you give her?

Drea: *laughs* Based on everything that I just said? Well, my first instinct, for example, if my daughter came to me and was like “I wanna be a singer,” I’d be like “No!” *laughs* “No honey, don’t do it, don’t move to L.A., don’t pursue music, please stop.” On the one hand, I think it’s important for young people to pursue their dreams because I think that it’s character building to follow your heart and your passions. I also think that in my experience, and in the experience of a lot of people in acting, dance, and music in Los Angeles, that the costs just aren’t worth the benefits. Some of the best advice that I would give, if they do decide to pursue music, is to stay true to yourself, to know who you are, to never compromise your integrity, and to build a team of people that you can trust and have your best in mind. Hopefully you will be a little more protected from the misogyny that is just rampant in this music industry, because I wasn’t. I moved out here by myself, I didn’t have any friends or any family here, and I got into some pretty terrible situations because of it. I didn’t have anybody to surround me and protect me from the predators that are out there. It’s sad for me to have to give that answer, because I would love to give the like, “You go girl! *claps* We need more women in the music industry! Pursue your dream!” But honestly it’s really dangerous for women out here, and it’s hard for me to wholeheartedly encourage girls to be singers and pop stars as opposed to producers. As producers, you have a lot more power. So yeah, come on female producers! Let’s do it! But it’s hard for me to truly support female musicianship with knowing what I know and what I’ve experienced. That’s not everyone’s experience, but it’s a lot of people’s experience, and it was my experience. And while I wouldn’t take back pursuing my dream, because I think it was important to getting to where I am now, I do think that I was lucky in a lot of senses because there are a lot of people that have been through some pretty horrendous things that haven’t or didn’t recover from it. I would prefer to shelter people from that than to encourage them to go headlong into it without knowing.

Photo Courtesy of For Her Concert Series

How important do you think it is for women to show support to other women in the industry, especially in a society where they just try to pit us against each other?

Drea: It’s so important. I think it’s important in the industry, but also in life in general. You know? Cause you’re right, this is a society that pits women against each other for all the wrong reasons, you know? I can’t tell you how many times I’ll been dating someone and he tries to make me jealous. We’ll be fighting, and I’ll be like “This girl’s actually really cool though, and now you’re making it about who’s better.” I didn’t ask for that. I think that sometimes we have a viewpoint that there are limited seats at the table when it comes to the industry. I think it’s important for women that currently have the opportunities to show support to other women who are trying to have those same opportunities, even if that means that they may be more successful than them. That’s really one of the ways that we can make more headway in the music industry, and to make it more equal and safe for everyone that’s trying to come up in it. It’s important for us to continue to build each other up and not be threatened by each other. I think in something like an art form, your music is always gonna be different than my music which is gonna be different than Stephanie’s music which is gonna be different than Sarah’s music, you know? You can’t really compare musicians at the end of the day, because when you take into consideration the whole brand situation, everybody’s gonna be so different from each other. So I think that if women do not support each other, we will continue to fail, and we will continue to be outnumbered. We need to really pull together and set competition aside and start collaborating. This is turning into such a serious interview! *laughs*

*laughs* Well here’s a fun question for you, since we touched base on us being ‘the playlist generation,’ I definitely agree that there’s times where I’m like, “I don’t feel like listening to this album right now.” Or I’ll throw on an album that I already know all the words to kind of thing because I’m stuck in my emo box. *laughs* I can never leave. But anyways, what essential women in music would you include on your playlist right now?

Drea: Oh yeah, I hear you. *laughs* Okay, I’m gonna start with some local artists. So the first would be Candace Wakefield, she’s one of my all-time favorites and she’s just an such an insane vocalist. She’s done background for Nicki Minaj, she’s toured the world, she’s a Grammy award-winning background vocalist, I think she was on Kendrick Lamar’s last album, she’s just incredible! Since she just dropped an album, I would absolutely include her. And then I would include another friend of mine, X. ARI . I’m gonna just put all my friends on my playlist. *laughs* But she is incredible, not only because she’s a great pop writer, but also because she uses her music and her platform to really talk about mental health. I think it’s so important for artists to make their platform about something other than themselves, because music is such a powerful healing tool like we’ve talked about before. And so X. ARI does that really really well working under the brand of ‘pain into power.’ That’s what she calls it. She also kind of started that hashtag, and made it her own, which is really cool. So I would include her. I would include Caitlin Eadie as well, she’s another friend of mine. I think she is just fantastic. She has such a cool vibe, like Norah Jones meets electronic. It’s just kind of crazy. I could literally go on and on about this and just have all of my female artist friends included. *laughs* But those are definitely some of my favorites that have albums and singles out now. And yes, obviously you need Beyoncé, and J-Lo, and the like. But shout-out to local L.A. artists though!

Yes! That’s why this blog exists! *laughs* Because there are so many here.

Drea: That’s true!

If you could choose three artists to collaborate with, and this could be like on a production basis, or a songwriting basis, or a performance basis, who would you choose and what would you guys do?

Drea: Man! These are the hard questions for me! *laughs* Let me think. So I will say that from a dance perspective, one of the people that I really look up to is Michelle Maniscalco, she goes by the name Jersey, and she’s an incredible dancer. She runs a Hottie Heels class for competitive dancers at Millennium Dance. Her confidence and her goal to empower women, even in the competitive sphere, is really inspiring to me and I would love to work with her. Actually I taught her boys at my full-time job, so I know her that way. *laughs* Who else? Oh, Tom Misch! He’s this jazz instrumentalist producer out of England. He’s just incredible! He is my go-to vibe, and whenever his music is playing on my nice Spotify playlist that I just throw on in my car, I can’t help but sing along to it. So I would love to work with him. Who else? I would honestly love to work with my friend Candace Wakefield, because she’s just so talented and I just admire her positive energy that just radiates out of her. She always wants to empower and uplift people, that is her main goal with her music, and I would love to work with her because of that.

And what word would you say describes you as an artist?

Drea: Um…one word? Can I have three words? *laughs* Just kidding. I think I would go with ‘brave,’ because I think that being honest is something that takes a lot of courage. Moving out here, staying out here after I was assaulted, staying in the music industry after I was assaulted, all of those things have definitely forced me to be brave, and to continue to step out of my comfort zone and out of my sheltered walls. To also stand up for other people, and stand against the very powerful negative forces that can be in the world, and in the music industry especially, I think that that’s something that I would like to continue to exemplify.

Photo Courtesy of Derrick Caldwell

Absolutely. And that kind of coincides with my next question. What do you hope your audience takes away from your music and other special projects?

Drea: Yeah! Well I just hope that people can relate to my story, that’s something that I think every artist wants, and to be able to help even just one person with whatever they’re going through is always a goal. I also want my music, my dance projects, and even the concert series to just be very uplifting and empowering to people, and a reminder that you can build cities out of your ashes. Sometimes we have to burn down in order to burn brighter at the end of the day, and it’s really our struggles and the things that we have to go through that make us who we are. I would love for my story to inspire people to keep going and to keep being brave, and also to be aware of the people around them and to be kind to others. I think in the city, we can kind of get in our little bubbles of “It’s all about me! I want to make millions and keep it for myself!” And I think it’s important, especially now in our political climate, to all come together as a community and recognize that we need to be looking outside of our own needs and be looking at the needs of other people too.

Definitely.Now you had mentioned that you were already working on lots of new music that will hopefully be released by the end of the year/early next year. But what other fun plans, events, music-related, dance-related things should we be expecting from you?

Drea: Well the new music is definitely going to be most of the work. I have music videos and stuff that are going to be planned before I release it, which is why I’m kind of taking my sweet time there. I’m also actually applying for grad school right now, so that’s kind of going to be my main focus until the application deadline on December 15th. That’s a big thing for me to be able to transition a little bit into more of the public affairs realm and to get my education so I create a new platform for myself in order to continue to be a strong and outspoken part of the community. So yeah! New music coming, grad school coming, we’re gonna continue to build Reclaim Movement with the self-defense classes rolling in a little while, and our next concert series will hopefully be sometime in October. Check out Drea on her Website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify!

About TEAPOP:

Tucked away on the ever busy Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood, TEAPOP is a hidden gem that purely reflects the constant up-and-coming-ness of the NoHo Arts District. From its unique graffiti art on its outside to its clear community support showcased inside, which includes a bulletin board of local and monthly events and an exhibit featuring cohesive doodles of parent and child. While there is ample seating indoors with plenty of fans to keep you cool, its outdoor patio is without a doubt a sight that you should be willing to sweat out for. Tasteful outdoor furniture against pops of color in the form of fence pallets and succulents as well as cute string bulb lights and a raised platform section make this the perfect spot for any event that you could possibly want to do. Ironically, when scheduling our interview, Drea and I both suggested TEAPOP for our meeting spot as it where she had hosted the first For Her Concert Series a few months prior.

TEAPOP’s menu has a lot more going on than what its name implies. Of course, they’ve got a fun selection of tea beverages (including loose leaf teas, tea lattes and an array of different kinds of Arnold Palmers or “Arnies“), but they also serve boba style milk teas, organic coffee choices, and non-caffeinated options. Their seasonal specials menu is what drew me in though as I opted for a refreshingly delicious Rose Milk Tea that made me feel like I was drinking straight from the flower itself. Calming ambiance music and a kind, happy staff make it no surprise that TEAPOP is the place to be for meetups, playing board games, or screenwriting pitching sessions.